Medical agent such as anticancer drug mixed in transfusion poses a risk of exposure. Therefore, a coinfusion processing of mixing such a medical agent or the like with a transfusion in preparation for use is performed in a safety cabinet set under a negative pressure. When coinfusion involves a vial container containing a powder medical agent as the above-mentioned medical agent, a medical agent preparator sucks the transfusion from a transfusion bag with a syringe and inserts the syringe needle of this syringe through a cap section (rubber plug) of the vial container to inject the transfusion from the syringe into the vial container. Then, the medical agent preparator uses the syringe to suck the transfusion in which the medical agent has been dissolved. Since there is a fixed amount of the medical agent in the vial container, the medical agent preparator have to repeat this operation of injecting the transfusion and then sucking it for a plurality of the vial containers until the required amount of the medical agent is dissolved in the transfusion. After the required amount of the medical agent is dissolved in the transfusion, the medical agent preparator inserts the syringe needle through the coinfusion mouth of the transfusion bag into the transfusion bag, and injects the transfusion which now contains the medical agent dissolved therein, from the syringe back to the transfusion bag.
Coinfusion processing involves not only the vial containers. In another type of coinfusion processing, a liquid medicinal agent in an ampule is injected into a transfusion. In such a coinfusion processing using an ampule, the ampule has its head cut off; then the liquid medicinal agent therein is sucked into a syringe; and the syringe needle is inserted through the coinfusion mouth of a transfusion bag to inject the liquid medicinal agent from the syringe into the transfusion bag.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H1-244759 Gazette (Hereinafter Patent Literature 1) discloses a radioactive medical agent dispensing apparatus for performing a dispensing operation while avoiding radiation exposure caused by radioactive medical agents. Also, Domestic Re-Publication of PCT International Application 2010/113401 Gazette (Hereinafter Patent Literature 2) discloses a medical agent mixing apparatus which is capable of handling medical agents and medical agent containers requiring different handling methods within a single apparatus, by handling each of the medical agent containers in their respectively appropriate container posture.
The apparatus in Patent Literature 1 is not designed as a coinfusion apparatus for injecting a liquid medicinal agent into a transfusion bag, nor is there any disclosure regarding a technique for preventing exposure to the medical agent. The apparatus in Patent Literature 2 is capable of injecting a liquid medicinal agent into a transfusion bag; however, there is no disclosure regarding a technique for appropriate disposal of used medical agent container, syringe, etc. Further, there is much room for improvement in a series of operations for injecting a liquid medical agent into a transfusion bag more appropriately.
In view of the above-mentioned situations, this invention provides a coinfusion apparatus that can automatically perform part or all of the coinfusion processing.